When human beings judge other human beings, it's often unfair, arbitrary, and based on personality and likeability. Here are the issues:
- The Defendant:
- The race, gender, personality, likeability, looks, dress, demeanor, reputation, position in society, connections, wealth and celebrity of a defendant often determine the outcome of their trial.
- Under duress, some defendants may confess to crimes they haven't committed.
- The Facts/The Truth:
- Often, we don't have all the facts, we don't know The Truth. So we speculate and come up with likely scenarios, looking for motive and intent.
- Witnesses:
- Sometimes witnesses are truthful, sometimes they're not, they lie. They may have a vested interest in the outcome, a personal vendetta, seeking vengeance, or some other nefarious reasons.
- Sometimes witnesses are coerced, bribed, or they may feel pressured to give one testimony over another.
- Lawyers:
- Careers: Lawyers are often more interested in their own personal careers (and professional reputations) than with The Truth. It's all about the number of wins and losses.
- The Art Of Persuasion: Successful lawyers are often the most successful manipulators. They have the ability to persuade, to influence, to use language (and body language) to extract a preferred response, and to use their personality to be liked by the judge, jury and greater community.
- Personal Prejudices: Lawyers often have personal prejudices, which affects the cases they choose, and the side they choose to argue for or against.
- Money: The best lawyers are often the most expensive, which means the rich have a better chance of staying out of prison than the poor. Meaning, the rich are held to a different standard of the law than the poor.
- Judges:
- Judges also have personal prejudices, and also focus on their own careers and reputations.
- Not all judges are the same, they have different personalities. Some are known to be more harsh (or more lenient) than others. Why should judgement be based on a judge's personality? One judge may give you two years, while another judge may give you five. It's arbitrary, based on personality and/or prejudice, which is unfair.
- In some places of the world, judgement is based on faulty interpretations of Scripture, such as The Quran.
- Juries:
- In some places of the world, juries decide the outcome of a trial. The jury selection process becomes an art in and of itself, because the types of people on a jury determines the outcome. If you have one group of people on a jury, you may get one outcome; whereas if you have another group of people on the jury, you may get another outcome.
- Punishments:
- The punishments handed out to defendants don't often transform them. If anything, they may become resentful and bitter because of the way they've been (mis)treated. If they go to jail, they may meet more criminals who then teach them new things, which is far from genuine rehabilitation.
- Defendants are sometimes punished three times:
- They're beaten and mistreated by the law enforcement personnel who arrest them,
- They're tried and sent to jail, so their freedom is taken away from them, and
- They're beaten, raped and/or mistreated in prison by other prisoners and/or prison guards.
- Sometimes governments put people in prison to quell dissidents in order to restore public order and/or retain their own power. People are punished for wanting change and for being vocal or demonstrative about it.
- Law Enforcement:
- Dirty Cops/Law Enforces: Dirty cops and dirty law enforcement personnel who pursue their own selfish agendas may plant evidence, hide evidence, fabricate information, give false testimony, coerce someone into confessing etc.
- Errors: Sometimes cops and law enforcement personnel make errors, they may be incompetent, negligent, lazy, or just not interested in doing a good job.
- Quotas: Sometimes overzealous law enforcement personnel have their own hidden agendas - they may be seeking to meet quotas, to let everyone know that they're doing a good job, they may be seeking a promotion, or be seen as relevant in order to keep their job etc.
- Bribery And Corruption: Corruption is rampant in law enforcement, and bribes are used to bypass the law altogether.
- Injury And Death: Sometimes civilians are injured or killed by law enforcement personnel.
- Complicated Judicial And Legal Systems:
- Judicial systems are often complicated, cumbersome and laden with bureaucracy and politics, leaving them inefficient and unreliable. Sometimes it takes months (or years) for people to go to trial, face a judge, or be sentenced.
- Different Standards Around The World:
- Different Standards Of Behaviour: We're all human beings, yet depending on where we live, we're subjected to different standards of behaviour. In some places of the world, people are executed for adultery; in other places, it's not a crime.
- Different Judicial Systems: There are many different types of judicial systems around the world, which means people are tried, judged and sentenced differently for the same crime.
- Prisons: Different standards of living in different countries means different standards of living in prisons around the world. For a one year sentence, a prisoner in one country may live in deplorable conditions, whereas a prisoner in another country may live in relatively high standards. The punishment experienced is different, depending on the country.
When Jesus was tried, he was treated unfairly. The priests were out to get him, they had Judas his disciple betray him, and under pressure from the angry crowd that had been influenced by the priests, Pilate the governor handed Jesus over to be executed, even though Pilate himself had found no fault in him. (Matthew 27:1-26, NIV) The whole affair was a first class mess.
We have to change from personal selfishness (seeking to benefit ourselves) to mutual bestowal (seeking to benefit others). If we seek to benefit others, we won't want to cause them any harm. We'll self-police ourselves and we'll want only to do good to others. This means that crime, violence, the police, prisons etc., will eventually disappear.
When God judges man, His judgement is true. He has all the facts, He's not trying to impress anyone with His persuasive abilities, He's not interested in advancing His career, He's not trying to impress people with His dazzling personality, He's not trying to be liked, He has no political aspirations etc. He's interested in life lessons, personal education based on experience, and internal transformation from personal selfishness to mutual bestowal.
When we judge others - whether it's in court, things we see on TV or people we meet in person - what's it based on? Our own limited understanding of who they are and what's happened? The fact that we like or dislike them? Believe them or not? That they're different from us? That we have a vested interest in the outcome?
Round tables need to be established to seek fair, equitable, consistent, reliable, dependable and efficient judicial systems around the world, where the goal of rehabilitation is personal transformation from selfishness to bestowal.
In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.
When we judge others - whether it's in court, things we see on TV or people we meet in person - what's it based on? Our own limited understanding of who they are and what's happened? The fact that we like or dislike them? Believe them or not? That they're different from us? That we have a vested interest in the outcome?
Round tables need to be established to seek fair, equitable, consistent, reliable, dependable and efficient judicial systems around the world, where the goal of rehabilitation is personal transformation from selfishness to bestowal.
In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.
Copyright © 2014, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.
